How paying the rent is getting tougher

Since the year 2000, rents have risen and so has the number of people needing affordable housing.

That double whammy means that even while building more housing, many places are failing to keep pace, according to a new study by the Urban Institute.

In its color-coded map, there’s only a smattering of counties across America with enough affordable housing for the extremely poor. In the U.S. as a whole, there were 47 affordable units available for every 100 extremely low-income families in 2000.

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That number only improved to 46 per 100 in 2014; without federal rental assistance, it would be only 21 units per 100 needy households.

And in places with higher housing costs – like California – the situation is worse.

Some counties, including Placer, have fallen further behind. Even those that have made significant progress, including Fresno and Merced, still fall far below the national average.

In Sacramento County, the number of affordable units increased from about 10,500 in 2000 to nearly 17,000 in 2014, but the number of extremely poor households also rose – from 40,300 to 63,300 in 2014.

That means the number of available units barely budged, from 26 per 100 families to 27. In 2014, there were only eight affordable units per 100 families without rental assistance.

This study isn’t about the struggle of working people to afford a small home, though that’s a big concern. This is about the extremely poor just trying to make the rent. They’re at or below 30 percent of the median income, or $23,580 a year for a family of four in Sacramento.

About This Blog

Foon Rhee, an associate editor, joined the The Sacramento Bee’s editorial board in February 2010 after reporting and editing for newspapers in Massachusetts and North Carolina and keeping his opinions to himself. He graduated from Duke and went to graduate school during a fellowship at the University of Hawaii. Foon Rhee can be reached at frhee@sacbee.com or 916-321-1913. Twitter: @foonrhee.